Recent Books

An innkeeper's son takes a dead man's armor and weapons, only to find himself enmeshed in a magical conspiracy. After his life is saved by a mysterious noblewoman, she promises him answers and more - but Falorn soon finds himself betrayed and on the run instead, chased by her father and fiance and other, unknown attackers.

Among the dead man's possessions is a mysterious, otherworldly piece of ivory with an almost-living green lion on it. The card gives Falorn strength, but also brings him enemies, and it makes him a part of a mysterious fellowship that he doesn't understand. The key to understanding - and survival - lies with Sera, the young noblewoman who saved him, and who he in turn rescues from her abusive family. But Sera vacillates between loving and secretive, between caring and betrayal - either because of her own cards or because of her abused childhood. And in a world where Falorn's life is threatened every day, and in which the card he carries is drawing him into politics and war, he may not live long enough for her to tell him the truth.

A lighthearted fantasy romp with a serious edge, The Green Lion is a fast-paced coming of age novel filled with magic, fighting, love, and betrayal.

Although The Green Lion and its sequel, The Golden Thorns are just coming out now, they were actually the first two fantasy novels I wrote, originally completed around 1995. While they were good enough at the time to land me my first agent, and they had some near misses, I ended up moving on to other things and focusing on nonfiction for most of the next decade. About the time I went back to fiction writing, John Betancourt of The Wildside Press - which also publishes the games I write - asked if they were still available. The Wildside edition is heavily rewritten from the initial version - I'm a much different writer now than I was a decade ago - and somewhat darker than its original form but still something of a fun romp.

Caught in the center of a magical conspiracy, Falorn struggles to survive the machinations of forces that think he's a powerful warrior - from a church that fears what he stands for to an immortal king to the woman who loves him and who has twice betrayed him . . . and who may be the only one who can save him.

Knighted for bravery in a battle Falorn only half-remembers, his newfound noble status is the only thing that saves Falorn's life when he's captured by a powerful archbishop. But that nobility also forces him on a doomed quest into the land of the Immortal King, where savage armies compete with powerful wizards to try to take away the magical artifact that propelled Falorn into this mess in the first place. In a web of betrayals and counterbetrayals, he finds himself more and more caught in love triangle between the woman who he loves but who has twice abandoned him, and the woman who seems to love him - but who he can never fully trust.

Wizards, monsters, pirates, murderous cults, and rogue professors all have a role to play in this fast-paced sequel to The Green Lion. But the ultimate role will be played by the sorceress in whose thorns Falorn is caught, and who set in motion the events that threaten to consume him - along with both of the women who love and betray him.

A lighthearted fantasy romp with a serious edge, The Golden Thorns is a fast-paced coming of age novel filled with magic, fighting, love, and betrayal.

The story begun in The Green Lion concludes in The Golden Thorns. They actually started out as a single book that kept growing and growing. At one point my agent suggested I expand them into a six-book series, but ultimately I decided that there were too many other books I wanted to write, so it stayed at two. These editions also gave me a chance to work with editor Amy Goldschlager again (which meant a lot more work, but much better books in the end). I can't possibly recommend Amy highly enough, for any of you who get a chance to work with her.

What's got more magic treasure than a dragon's hoard? The Wildside Book of Loot, with its thousands of personalized items has all the treasure a GM could ever want. With treasure for every occasion - from the aftermath of a dungeon crawl to those late-night shopping expeditions at the pawnshop selling "lightly used" magic items - The Wildside Book of Loot is an important resource for GMs who want to provide the perfect loot for the occasion. From basic resources (like tables of the most commonly found magic items and a spell point rune generator) to the expected (thousands of weapons and items that raise stats) to the truly exotic (like magical pets and furniture), The Wildside Book of Loot is a unique resource for roleplaying gamers.

Almost 10,000 distinct magic items in more than 40 categories - all the treasure a GM could ever want

Tables for generating the most commonly found magic items, as well as percentile tables for more obscure items

GMs can select the perfect item from categorized lists, roll randomly within a category, or roll on a massive table of nearly 10,000 magic items

Thousands of pieces of magical treasure for gamers to discover everywhere from castles to dungeons to dragon hordes to pockets they've picked. Everything from magic weapons to magic pets to magic cosmetics - designed for The Wildside Gaming System, but includes conversions into other popular systems.

This is the first companion volume to the roleplaying system I wrote (see below), which is being re-launched by Wildside Press this August with a number of additional titles to follow. (I'll be editing five other gaming-related books for Wildside Press in the series, and retain full creative control of the game system. Feel free to drop by the Wildside Game site or the forums.)

Whether
you're a longtime fan or just discovered the Red Sox Nation during the incredible
2004 World Championship season, this book has everything you want to know
or remember about the Sox.

- Who was the Red Sox pitcher who died for love?
- Who caught a rat in his glove during a game?
- Which players took photos of a teammate sleeping with a stripper?
- Which player was arrested while trying to flee the country in midseason?
- What are the new seats at Fenway Park like?
- What are the best places to eat before and after the game?
- What happens now that there's no more curse?

Updated for the 2005 season, this third edition of The Red Sox Fan Handbook
includes up-to-date entries on over 350 key players (past and present),
great moments and rivalries, an expanded history of the team, the top 50
Red Sox minor leaguers, Red Sox-related websites and books, new guides to
visiting Fenway Park and the minor league parks, a Red Sox fan's guide to
(safely) visiting Yankee Stadium, and much more. More

This was the third edition for this book, published after the Sox won
the World Series. Many folks contributed to its construction, drawn from
a group of hardcore Red Sox fans that I originally met on the old ASBBR
Usenet group. I don't have any immediate plans to write a fourth book, although
I've kicked around the idea of putting the player entries online after the
Rounder Books edition is no longer in print. (Watch this space for info.)
For now, I've gone back to writing fiction almost exclusively ... it's time
to be a Red Sox fan - rather than a Red Sox writer - again for a while.

The Wildside Gaming System is a flexible, innovative,
ultra-realistic role-playing system designed specifically for adult and
experienced gamers. Combining realistic and logical character development,
realistic combat, and accurate historical elements, the Fantasy Role-Playing
Edition is designed especially for Game Masters who like to create their own
settings for swashbuckling heroics, magic, and adventure in a complex
fantasy world.

Wildside features:

- Hundreds of available skills
(weapons, languages, riding, etc.) with costs weighted depending on
character stats and other skills possessed.
- Head-to-head interactive
combat, with realistic damage and no invulnerable characters - a logical,
unique combat system that is fast and fun to play.
- Eighteen different types of
magic (and dozens of subclasses), with thousands of available spells -
and rules for creating an infinite number of new spells, magic weapons,
and other enchanted items
- Character advancement in
individual skills through use and learning instead of across-the-board
advancement in levels.
- Advanced world-building tools
for Game Masters, along with dozens of pre-set adventure seeds for
people who want to jump right in.
- An interactive website at
www.wildsidegame.com with
additional tools for GMs and players, bulletin boards for finding
gamers, demos, and GMing workshops in your area, and a place to read and
submit Wildside-based fan-fiction, game scenarios, spells, and monsters.

The
Wildside Fantasy Role-Playing System combines the best of
old-style world-building with cutting-edge realism - for players who are tired
of cookie-cutter games that assume the players have no imaginations. Give it
a try and you'll never go back to your old gaming system again! More

There
are hundreds of museums in New England. Everyone knows the famous museums,
but there are smaller treasures scattered throughout the region in unexpected
places , documenting New England history, artwork, folklore, and life. Museums
of New England is a guide to all the New England museums, from artwork to
armories to arboretums to living history--where they are, when to go, how
to get there, and what to look for.

In addition to descriptions of 600 museums (and contact info for over 1,500
museums in all), the book features driving directions, indexes by state,
town, subject, and highway, sidebars on special museum organizations (like
the Society for Preservation of new England Antiquities), regional features
(like the Walking Weekend or the Connecticut Impressionist Art Museum Trail)
memberships, and discount programs.

There were two sequels to this in the works - the second volume, which
covered NY, NJ, and CT was already written - but they got caught up in my
divorce and were never published. By the time things smoothed out, the
information was out of date, and I had moved on to writing other things.

Think
like Bubbles, the sweet, artistic sister of the superpowered crime-fighting
team known as The Powerpuff Girls. By picking which page to turn to, decide
what Bubbles will do and where she will go in your very own Powerpuff Girls
adventure!

Bubbles plans to spend the day in lovely green Townsville Park, drawing
pictures of the colorful butterflies that live there. But when she gets
to the park, it's all brown and withered-looking, and all the butterflies
are gone except for one! Somehow, that last butterfly is the key to what
has happened in Townsville Park and to a sinister plot by monkey supervillain
Mojo Jojo, who lives at the park's center. Can you help Bubbles solve the
mystery and save the park?

This book was sold as part of the Scholastic Book Clubs, so unless
you're friends with someone who was a 2nd grader at the right time, good
luck finding it. Amy Goldschlager, my editor at Scholastic on this project,
was the best editor I've ever worked with, especially since meeting the
conflicting guidelines from Scholastic and Cartoon Network was an exercise
in herding cats.

With
more than half of American college students now "nontraditional," this book
is an essential reference work. The only comprehensive guide available for
nontraditional students, the newly updated Adult Student's Guide includes
descriptions of more than 600 adult bachelor's degree programs throughout
the country, as well as practical information on financial aid for adults,
life experience credits, and other key information for adult learners. Jointly
written by a college professor and a longtime financial aid administrator. More

Everyone loved the idea of this book, and administrators went out of
their way to help put both editions of it together (the first edition was
published by Berkley), but it never actually sold very well, alas. Between
that and the fact that I compiled it with my ex-wife, you might not want
to look for a third edition anytime soon. It did give me a chance to promote
adult learning, which is very important to me; one of my first teaching
jobs was with the Weekend College at Bloomfield College in NJ.

In
Closing the Deal, expert negotiators share their secrets on how
to maximize sales and commissions - combine a traditional sales strategy
with today's technology. Some of the books on the market focus on
manipulation or sneaky sales tactics. Other real estate titles provide guidance
on marketing or listing on the Internet. This book, however, provides rock-solid
sales techniques. Touching on marketing and showing how to use the Internet
in research and sales this book establishes how to personalize sales pitches
and customize negotiation strategies based on core negotiation points.

Not my happiest writing experience ever, though the book turned out
well, and continues to sell pretty well. I'm still not entirely sure how
the editor's father ended up getting co-author credit on the book, although
at her request, the man was one (of many) real estate agents who I interviewed
before writing the book.